#l5a

2021

Kihachi Okamoto

So, my friends and I have been playing Legend of Five Rings intermitently for the past... 18 years. We started with first edition, skipped the oriental adventures thing, tried to adopt 3rd edition but not really liked it and finally 4th edition came out in all its glory and that was it. We know there is now the 5th edition with its special dice and all that but we have remained sort of undecisive about it.

Anyway, as years passed by we have made a list of essential films to watch if you want to get a good feel of samurai drama:

1- 13 Assassins (2010, dir Takeshi Mike): This is the basic entry for us, it has lots of action so its not a boring samurai drama and its a good introduction to the genre. For roleplaying purposes it shows you everything you need to start playing legend of the five rings since the plot accurately represents the basic struggle of the samurai: duty vs honor.

2- Yojimbo (1961, dir. Akira Kurosawa) now that you get the basic conflict of being a samurai in service to your lord you will need to watch this movie to understand the other half of the equation: RONIN. Chances are people in your table will want to play Ronin when they start since it is probably easier to start with one of these characters. Also, bonus points for showing how the lower classes live and suffer under bandits, goverment and ronin clashing daily.

3-  Harakiri (1962, dir. Masaki Kobayashi) Ok, so you have watched 13 Assassins, the first part of that movie involves a bit of court drama and classic samurai dilemma. If you really want to delve into these themes you NEED to watch Harakiri. This movie is a long sucession of etiquette, court, and lore Bushido skills rolls, contested rolls and honor checks for those involved. Seriously, read the whole mechanics skill check for legends of the five rings related to etiquette, court and honor and its all here. Watch the original from 1962, DO NOT WATCH THE REMAKE. 

4-   The Sword of Doom (1966, dir   Kihachi Okamoto). If Harakiri shows you how the courtly drama should unfold in L5R, this film shows you how duel and combat work, and yes ITS DEADLY. Also, if you pay close attention to the disadvantages part of the character creation for 1st and 4th edition of L5A you can find pretty much all the traits of the protagonist and explain how he is such an overpowered character (I know because I had this type of character/player in our adventures)